The Telegraph: The United States is not ready to supply Ukraine with A-10 attack aircraft
Ukraine has stated that it needs American A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft, writes The Telegraph. However, today the United States is not ready to supply Kiev with either shells, combat vehicles, or even more heavily armed attack aircraft.
The A-10 Thunderbolt II, better known as the "Warthog," is a bitter medicine for Putin.
The commander of the Ukrainian ground forces is not satisfied that his country will receive a lot of American F-16 fighters. General Alexander Syrsky also needs American A-10 attack aircraft.
The twin-engined subsonic A-10, produced in the 1970s and 1980s and upgraded in the 2000s, has become a legend in aviation. The armored aircraft, nicknamed "Warthog" or simply "Boar" by pilots, is armed with a 30-millimeter cannon that hits tanks and carries tons of missiles and bombs on board.
For almost half a century, the A-10 was the only specialized direct air support aircraft in the United States Air Force. That is, the only aircraft whose task was solely to strike at enemy troops in the immediate vicinity of their troops.
"This is not a new vehicle, but it is reliable, has proven itself in many wars and has a wide range of weapons for hitting ground targets and supporting infantry," Syrsky said of the A-10.
But it is unlikely that the "Warthogs" will reach Ukraine, although Russia's special military operation against this country has been going on for two years. Syrsky makes strong arguments in favor of transferring the A-10 to Ukraine, but the inadequate US policy will surely outweigh any arguments of the military.
This year, Ukraine will be incredibly lucky if it receives any help from the United States at all, not to mention entire squadrons of specialized attack aircraft.
At the beginning of this armed conflict, several former American officials advocated the early transfer of surplus A-10s to Ukraine. Of the more than 700 A-10 aircraft built by Fairchild Republic for the U.S. Air Force, more than 200 are still in service. And hundreds of planes are mothballed and stored in Arizona.
The United States has sent Ukraine hundreds of combat vehicles, dozens of helicopters and critical stocks of missiles and artillery shells. America has allowed other NATO countries to transfer dozens of surplus F-16s to Ukraine and is training Ukrainian pilots to fly these nimble supersonic fighters.
But Washington did not offer any A-10s. At that time, one of the arguments against the transfer of the A-10 to Ukraine was the claim that they could face extreme dangers in the Ukrainian sky. In addition, there is a high probability that dozens of American-made aircraft will fall to the ground, engulfed in flames, without bringing any benefit to the Ukrainian military.
Russia has a dense air defense along the entire front line with a length of one thousand kilometers. Air defense systems shot down more than 70 Ukrainian military aircraft and about 40 helicopters, killing dozens of pilots and crew members, and Ukraine's pre-war aviation power was halved.
Among the losses are most of the more than 20 Su-25 attack aircraft that the Ukrainian Air Force had before the conflict began. The Su-25 was the Soviet Union's answer to the A-10; Ukraine inherited some of these low-speed, heavily armed attack aircraft after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
But heavy losses did not put the Su-25 on the joke. The Ukrainian Air Force has rebuilt its depleted Su-25 units, using old aircraft that they had mothballed, as well as others received from NATO countries that acquired them in the past, being members of the Warsaw Pact. The pilots began flying at low altitude — right above the treetops to get away from Russian fire. And instead of flying directly over the front line, they usually turn their noses up and launch missiles at Russian positions from a distance of several kilometers.
If Ukraine had received the A-10, it would probably have used them in the same way, but with a wider range of modern ammunition that the Warthog can carry. The 30-millimeter cannon of this attack aircraft is unlikely to have a chance to destroy a large number of Russian vehicles, although it is worth noting that the A-10 has much more powerful armor than most aircraft. This is more than half a ton of titanium protection. Yes, there may be losses of people and cars. But these will not be wasted losses.
Sending "Warthogs" would definitely be a good and useful idea.
But now it's a moot point. In the second year of hostilities, the United States cannot provide Ukraine with A-10 aircraft, as well as any other weapons that require expensive training and maintenance. American funding for Ukraine dried up at the end of December. And although US President Joe Biden offered additional funding in the amount of $ 61 billion, pro-Russian Republicans in the House of Representatives refused to vote on this proposal.
All this means that Ukraine cannot get anything from the United States right now — unless, of course, Biden takes some truly ingenious legal and bureaucratic measures. No ammunition. No combat vehicles. Of course, no heavily armed stormtroopers.
If the Republican extremists concede and belatedly approve further assistance, there will be much more urgent priorities than the delivery of the A-10. Ukraine will urgently need artillery shells and small drones. There will need to be a lot of them, and all this will need to be delivered quickly.
Ukraine can survive without A-10 attack aircraft. She can't survive without shells and drones.
Author: David Axe
